'A comprehensive narrative of an American frontier microcosm. [Arnow] casts much of her narrative in what is essentially the form of good local history, but her concepts of the human factors of the people of the Cumberland are the universal ones of American history itself' - "New York Times Book Review". 'Perhaps the most intimate picture we have of society in the trans-Alleghany phase of the Westward Movement...A moving tribute' - "Christian Science Monitor". The author of "Seedtime on the Cumberland" returns with another richly detailed evocation of pioneering in the Cumberland River basin, or what is now middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. Not a sequel but a companion piece, "Flowering of the Cumberland" covers much the same time - from first settlement in 1780 to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.Whereas Seedtime was preoccupied with solitary men and women struggling to secure food, clothing, shelter, and land, Flowering goes beyond simple survival to focus on family and community.
Memorably described are the strength of women like Sally Buchanan in stations fortified against Indian attack, the emergence of men like Andrew Jackson, the pursuit of sex and marriage, the birthing and raising of children, schooling, the state of agriculture, business opportunities and the professions, religion and tolerance, border politics, and social life and diversions. An entire bygone world comes to life, and with it the smell of strong whiskey, the clippety-clop of horses, and the haunts of ghosts. Harriette Simpson Arnow, whose own roots are in the Cumberland country, is the author of The Dollmaker. Margaret Ripley Wolfe is a professor of history at East Tennessee State University-Johnson City and the author of "Daughters of Canaan: A Saga of Southern Women".

Introduction by: Margaret Ripley Wolfe